Charita Goshay: One Billion Rising seeks end to violence against women

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By Charita GoshayMore Content Now

Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

By Charita GoshayMore Content Now

Posted Feb. 12, 2014 at 9:34 AM
Updated Feb 12, 2014 at 9:34 AM

By Charita GoshayMore Content Now

Posted Feb. 12, 2014 at 9:34 AM

Like New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day is not always the rose-colored, starry-eyed extravaganza the popular culture says it should be. In fact, for 1 billion of the world’s women, it’s just another day filled with violence and deprivation.

For this reason, Kimberlé Crenshaw is helping to spearhead One Billion Rising for Justice, a global campaign to highlight and eliminate violence against women. Crenshaw is a professor of law at UCLA and director of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School.

The campaign kicks off on Friday in 179 countries. The event includes rallies, videos, town halls, protest in the form of dance, and women re-occupying spaces deemed dangerous to them.

Crenshaw is working with Eve Ensler, the creator of V-Day and “The Vagina Monologues.”

“We’ve had a lot of victories and breakthroughs, but we actually haven’t ended violence against women worldwide,” Ensler said. “We decided to escalate our efforts.”

Ensler said the idea for One Billion Rising came during a visit with women in Congo: “What would happen if 1 billion raped and beaten women on the planet danced with the people who loved them? How dangerous, radical, and celebratory it would that be?”

POVERTY AND PAIN

Ensler and Crenshaw contend that there’s an undeniable link between poverty and gender-based violence.

“The majority of the world is making less than $2 a day,” Ensler said. “I think the violence of poverty is similar to sexual violence against women. If women could support themselves with a fair wage, they’d be at less risk. A free economy is the best protection against violence.”

“We know that poverty is linked to violent encounters,” said Crenshaw, the daughter of the late civic leaders and educators Walter and Marian Williams Crenshaw. “The majority of U.S. rape victims comes from the bottom third. Though violence happens to women in all classes, dealing with the consequences is where you have the biggest disparity. Violence can go treated or untreated. Poor women often have no access to therapy or other kinds of intervention. ... These are ways in which poverty, race and class exacerbates the problem.”

Ensler said eliminating violence against women benefits everyone.

“Women are at the heart of everything about life,” she said. “When you diminish, destroy and undermine women through rape and brutality, you destroy the possibility of any future. When you go to any community that allows women to rise, you multiply any benefit. In destroying women, the opposite is true. If a mother has been raped, how does she bring up a son? When a daughter is sold, how does she dream of a future?

Page 2 of 2 - Society, Ensler added, must change how it raises its boys.

“We live in world where the majority of men still believe they can do whatever they want in the world,” she said. “There is still a sense that women are second-class citizens everywhere. It filters down to all the institutions. The U.S. almost typifies what’s going on the world, where one in three women will be raped and beaten, 300,000 women are assaulted in college, and one in three are sexually assaulted in the military. The statistics are even worse with women of color.”

PRISON PIPELINE

“The rate of assaults and abuse among Native America women is 31/2 times higher than other groups,” Crenshaw said. “It’s important for communities to realize that gender-based violence is familiar in every community. We need to make sure African Americans see that it’s not just a ‘white women’s issue.’ Our girls are facing higher rates of victimization and abuse than other girls.

“It’s important to remember that there’s a school-to-prison pipeline for women, too. Sixty percent of women incarcerated suffered from abuse as juveniles. They’re mothers, so there’s an intergenerational risk for abuse.”

Asked what the average person can do, Ensler replied, “If they don’t have a Rising in Canton, they can start one. Or they can support local and community-based groups who are doing the work of keeping people alive.”